Blowhard, Esq. writes:
Barbara Stanwyck and her legs star in this engaging Warner Bros. pre-Code Hollywood work from a story by Daryl Zanuck writing under a pseudonym. A sort of femme fatale Horatio Alger story, Stanwyck plays a teenage tramp pimped out by her father in an Albany speakeasy who learns to use sex to exploit men. When daddy is dispatched, and under the kindly direction of a German professor-type spouting Nietzschean philosophy (“Crush out all sentiment!”), Stanwyck moves to New York City and sleeps her way to the top, floor by floor, of a major bank. She’ll have sex with anyone, anywhere, to get what she wants — a railroad bull in a filthy boxcar, a midlevel accountant in a work washroom, or her stuffy boss in his office. There’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him appearance by John Wayne playing her goofy boyfriend.
The sex is suggested of course, but the camera does linger lasciviously on Stanwyck’s figure and the sweaty men who all but lick their chops. A crisp 75 minutes, director Alfred Green keeps the action moving, which also includes a murder-suicide and some Parisian excursions, and even manages a couple of arty shots of Stanwyck reflected in mirrors to emphasize her two-faced duplicity. Also given that it was made in early 30s, there’s some nice Art Deco sets and costumes. The ending attempts to redeem Stanwyck but manages to eek out a note of ambiguity.
More
- Here’s the film’s trailer. Here’s a short clip.
- For decades, the only version of the film that survived was a Bowdlerized one that Warner Bros. recut after it was rejected by New York film censors. However, in 2004 the original was discovered, which is the version for rent on Amazon.
Blowhard, Esq.
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Uncouth Reflections 
Amazing how funky (let alone how un-PC) those early sound movies could be, isn’t it? Rough me up a little, baby! Seems healthy to me, especially by comparison to our hysterical, micro-agression-obsessed, thought-policing present.
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The movie is sorta crazy and all over the place in the best way. Turner Classic Movies has a Pre-Code DVD series that I’ll probably pick-up since most of movies don’t seem available on Amazon Prime or Netflix: http://www.amazon.com/TCM-Archives-Forbidden-Collection-Red-Headed/dp/B000I2JDF8/
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Nice review. “Red-Headed Woman” is my fave on that set. Made Harlow a star, and the screenplay, by Anita Loos, is hilarious. I see “Night Nurse,” also starring Stanwyck, has been released on another TCM set. I like that one too. Sadly, most of the good Stanwyck pre-codes aren’t available on video because they were made at Columbia.
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I’ll definitely check out RHW. If I’m not mistaken, the Wikipedia entry for BF notes that BF was written as Warner Bros’s reaction to RHW. Looking forward to the rest in the TCM series, too.
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Actually, I guess some have been released on DVD, through some partnership between TCM and whatever giant corporation owns the Columbia catalog. Too bad it’s so pricey — also too bad it doesn’t include more early Capras, like “Dirigible” or “American Madness.”
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